Will iPhone lose its top spot?

The iPhone may have some actual competiton now. According to BusinessWeek, in the third quarter of this year, Samsung Galaxy III has outsold the iPhone by 1.8 million during this 3-month period when comparing shipment orders to sales of the iPhone. Samsung has been the only smartphone even close to competing with Apple since the iPhone’s inception. We have recently been talking about supply chain management and this could be why Samsung has such an edge up compared to other smartphone manufactures. As we learned in class, companies are not competing against each other, rather by their supply chain. Samsung is able to produce its own chip, flash memory for internal storage and Super Amoled handset displays. They are the only smartphone manufactures who do this, while Apple designs their chips and then hands it off to someone else to manufacturer them. They also outsource their production of the actual phone to factories in China. Apple’s supply chain process has been working will for them which are why they are ahead of their competition besides all of the features of the phone. Samsung is closely following Apple’s supply chain model by controlling what they can as much as possible. Samsung has also recently been sued by Apple for imitation of their phone. Do you think they will eventually be able to have a leg up on Apple do to their supply chain model? Or are they a top competitor because their phone is so closely imitated to the iPhone?

 

 

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-09/why-only-samsung-builds-phones-that-outsell-iphones#r=nav-fst

 

 

8 thoughts on “Will iPhone lose its top spot?

  1. I am personally finding this race between the Galaxy and the iPhone to be very interesting. Lately, it has seemed as though Apple has taken over. They have released the latest version of the iPhone, the iPad Mini, as well as newer models of the iPod touch. The buzz surrounding the Galaxy S III is saying that the Galaxy is an all around better option – when compared to the iPhone, it blows it away. I am wondering if the iPhone 5 is going to pull ahead sometime soon though. Reviews are stating that the iPhone 5 is giving users many problems and difficulties. Maybe this is yet another sign of the apocalypse coming in 2012?

  2. Looks like Apple need to figure a brand new and innovative plan if they are going to edge away from Samsung. However, do you think maybe Apple is launching too many things at once that they are not focus on the iPhone 5? So far Apple has its reputation to keep their customers from switching to Samsung Galaxy S III, but how long before that reputation is going to last if Apple does not pull through?

    As for Samsung following Apple’s supply chain strategy, Samsung has learned from the best and if this keeps up the student is going to be the teacher.

  3. I have couple of friends who ended up getting the Samsung galaxy 3 because they
    Couldn’t get their hands on the iPhone 5. They did not want to wait and grew frustrated by the shortage of the iPhone availability. This is a problem they need to focus on and fix in the future because they will losing many of their customers. In today’s economy, time is money and everyone wants what they want when they want. No one is willing to sit around and wait while there are other great options and alternatives available.

  4. I believe the legacy of IPhones will continue to be challenged and soon defeated. Since the IPhones inception, Apple has made its money my creating new models with very few new features, where as the competition is looking to truly innovate and has to create something special to draw market share. It is only a matter of time until consumers realize that the IPhone is not the best phone in the world, and if Apple doesnt start to offer real Innovations, they will eventually lose their top spot. Instead of a 1 inch larger screen and xyz processors, they need to find ‘the next big thing’ just as the way they initially changed the cell phone world, Apple needs to find true advancement.

  5. I think that in the long run, the iPhone will probably lose its top spot, but that doesn’t mean Apple will. Apple is extremely innovative and could possibly using their creativity for other projects. They know that the iPhone is popular and that there are so many iPhone and Apple lovers that their product will continue to do well in sales even if they are not number one anymore.

  6. This article speaks volume to Samsung position in the mobile phone industry. Samsung clearly has an advantage with their supply chain due to the fact that they produce many of components that goes into the Galaxy S3 and as we learned in class the less disruptions that a company has in their supply chain the better as disruptions effect inventory which effect sales, and by Samsung controlling more of their supply chain they can limit those disruptions.

  7. Although Samsung is on the same level as Apple, I believe that Samsung Galaxy doesn’t closely imitate the iPhone. They are very different in terms of format and processing. I highly doubt that Samsung can beat the iPhone because Apple has a very high reputation and many are devoted Apple users. Also, I believe that before Samsung attracts more iPhone users, Apple will definitely come up with more innovative advancements in their iPhones. Apple is very creative with what they come up with and I just don’t think Samsung can beat that even if they use the idea of mass customization for their customers.

  8. Although Samsung has become one of the top competitors for Apple in regards to smartphones, I feel that Apple has a large portion of its customers who plan to remain loyal to Apple. I have quite a few friends that have owned the iPhone in the past, and when they switched to the Samsung Galaxy, they were disappointed and ended up switching back to the iPhone. They commented on how the iPhone was easier to use and that they were simply just used to the way the iPhone operated and did not want to adapt to the way the Galaxy operated. They also commented on how the Galaxy did not have features that were comparable to iPhone features. This bodes well for Apple in terms of retaining its current customer base, however, potential new customers may first turn to the Galaxy instead of the iPhone and remain loyal to Samsung in the future.

Leave a Reply to spr1313fmohan Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *